


Boy Talk

by allyndra



Category: High School Musical
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-13
Updated: 2009-12-13
Packaged: 2017-10-04 10:05:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allyndra/pseuds/allyndra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chad and Zeke talk about their respectives Evanses. (prompted by zvi_likes_tv)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Boy Talk

Cody and DeMartel were trying to one-up each other with stories about how far they'd gotten with girls. The fact that they were doing so in the locker room raised it from a stereotype to a cliché. Chad rolled his eyes as he shoved his bag into his locker and saw Zeke doing the same. The two of them slipped out of the locker room quietly, unregarded by the boys intent on the tales of sexual shenanigans.

Chad and Zeke crossed the deserted basketball court, and it wasn't until they were halfway across that Zeke said, "Man, if I talked that way about Sharpay, she'd never even _kiss_ me again."

"If you talked that way about Sharpay, you'd wake up tomorrow with a decapitated stand mixer in your bed." Chad grinned, just imagining her reaction. He wondered if she'd ever actually killed someone with just the sound of her voice.

Zeke shrugged. "My girl has standards, and she enforces them ruthlessly." He sounded kind of proud. "Anyway," he said, bumping his shoulder against Chad's, and giving him a sly look, "like Ryan wouldn't cut you off if he heard you saying that crap about him."

Chad stumbled. "Um." His eyes darted around, even though he knew full well that the gym was empty. "Um."

Zeke frowned at him. "What?"

"No, I just didn't. I didn't know that you knew. That." Chad was glad they were walking, because it gave him something to focus on. He watched where his feet were going, letting his eyes catch on the way his shoelaces flopped when he stepped and the little bits of dust and fluff on the smooth wooden floor.

"Whoa," Zeke said. He smacked Chad on the shoulder. "You did not think I was going to freak about that. Tell me you didn't."

Chad swallowed. His tongue felt too big for his mouth. "I don't know. I … Zeke, I'm not ready to tell people about this." His brain shied away from the idea. It was too big and too scary. When he darted a glance at Zeke, he could tell from the furrow of his brows that Zeke didn't get it. "You won't tell anyone, right?"

Zeke shook his head quickly. "No, no. Not if you don't want me to." He ducked his head. "I just saw your jacket and backpack over at Sharpay's a few days ago when Ryan was locked in his room with his boyfriend. Put two and two together."

Chad nodded and licked at his dry lips. "I guess that's okay," he said tentatively. "I mean, it's kind of like family, right?"

Zeke beamed at him. "How cool would that be? If I married Sharpay and you married Ryan?" Even in his excitement, he kept his voice down, which convinced Chad that he meant his promise to keep the secret. "We would be brothers, man." His eyes went misty with what Chad assumed were daydreams of Sharpay in a hideous pink wedding dress. With sequins.

Chad tried to picture Ryan waiting at the end of the aisle in a top hat and tails, but all he could see was his mother, sitting in the front pew and glaring daggers. "My mom would kill me," he said. "I know I'm going to have to tell her someday, but not while I'm living at home." He nodded to himself. "I want an escape plan for when she figures out I dumped a smart, gorgeous black girl to date a skinny white boy who dances."

They came to the big double doors leading outside, and Zeke shoved one open. Chad looked up at him speculatively. "How did your parents react to Sharpay?"

Zeke grimaced. "My mom muttered something about Britney Spears. Both of my parents were a little freaked. Mostly just because she's an Evans, I think."

"Yeah." Dating an Evans was way, way down on Chad's list of worries in telling his parents about Ryan. Sometimes when he was lying in bed at night, a niggling little voice told him to just wait, to hold on until he and Ryan broke up before telling his parents about the gay thing. But the rest of him ached at the thought of breaking up with Ryan, like, ever. So that plan was out.

"I think I'm going to wait until I'm in college," he said. "I'll still be in town, but I'm going to be in the dorms, so we can all go to our corners. Cool off."

"That really sucks." Zeke's voice was so bleak that Chad stared at him. "I don't think I ever thought about it, but that blows." He shook his head, obviously upset. When Chad just shrugged, Zeke reached out a hand and pulled him to a stop. "Okay, close your eyes and think about Ryan for a second. Think about the way he looks when he comes off the stage after rehearsal. Or the way he laughs when he's teasing you and nobody else would get the joke."

Chad didn't want to think about those things out here in the middle of the sidewalk, but now that he'd started, he couldn't stop. It made him feel vulnerable, but it also made him feel warm and bright, lit up from the inside. He wasn't going to admit it, least of all to Ryan, but he was kind of pathetically in love.

Zeke's voice cut into his reverie. "How can you not want to tell people about that?" he asked plaintively.

There was a _someday_ that lived inside of Chad, a time when he could hold Ryan's hand out in public without drawing stares and kiss him with innocent affection that no one would label as perversion. Right now …

"I'm okay just telling Ryan about it," Chad said. He smiled. If his smile was a little wobbly, Zeke wasn't telling anyone. "And now I can tell you. So that's something."

"Yeah." Zeke still looked troubled, but he started walking again.

Chad trailed behind, and fished his phone out of his pocket. He flipped it open and sent a quick text to Ryan. Just 's plans to go to Santa Fe next weekend.

If he could only tell Ryan and Zeke about how he felt, he was going to make sure he told them a lot.


End file.
